Skimmer question.

[EMUreef]

Alright im doing my last few testing of things, and was testing out my plumbing, return pump and skimmer in freshwater.

My question is... How much different will a skimmer perform in freshwater.

My skimmer is the MSX 200 with a scicce 2500 pump. When in freshwater i was getting maybe a little bubble action.

And this is a concern because once the sump/Display is filled i wont be able to pull the skimmer out without emptying the sump.

pump seems to work fine, air intake seems fine, needlewheel seems to be in great shape.

[jay13]

skimmers will not work at all in fresh water. not even a little bit.

[Mike]

Jay is right. It has a lot to do with the salinity and how protiens react to air. I know that proteins are attracted to air preferentailly in salt water (see sea foam). Do not base your selection on a test in freshwater. It is apples and oranges.

[Sir Patrick]

A skimmer in freshwater is going to produce some big bubbles. You wont get the fine refractionating bubbles/foam like you would in saltwater.

[Werdlone]

RO/DI water has no inpurities or waste in it..so you will get no skimmate. Yes, you will have bubbles, but no sludge. With your tank water, it will pull out all of the protein and any other waste. Be patient, it will take a few days for the skimmer to break in. I have an MSX skimmer with sicce pump, and I can tell you, it rocks!!!

[Poseidon]

If you add vinegar to the freshwater bath, you will get finer/more bubbles as well.

You can not really compare the bubble production from fresh to saltwater, there is far more different then in common between the 2.

[vittleking]

why not just add some regular table salt to get a better idea of how it will work in saltwater. It's cheap, and would be a lot closer to how it will really run once it's set up than a fresh water test. Just a thought.

[reefmeiser]

test in a bucket or tub of aquarium water,when test is complete,you can return water to your tank

[tazzy695]

i agree a true test has to be in saltwater as fresh water unless extremely dirty wont foam like salt will I don't know the scientific reason but either way make up some salt water and test the skimmer in there

generally you will get clean white foam unless you have nutrients in the tank

also a word of advice would be to make sure you can pull the skimmer out even with the system fully put together even if this means building a taller stand this way if a pump fails or something else happens you can remove it for cleaning or repair

tazzy

[EMUreef]

wow raise a thread from the dead lol. but thanks for the input none the less.